Blog from Bali

United Nations Climate Change Conference takes place in Bali from 3 to 14 December.

The background for the conference is written in the fourth report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC. The report emphasizes the inevitability of climate change. IPCC sends a strong signal to the leaders of the world. We must act now in order to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases.

IPCC also stresses that it is technically and economically possible to act. The longer we wait the more harm will be caused by climate change and the more expensive it will be to deal with the consequences. The global emissions should peak within 10 - 15 years and then start to decline.

The obvious goal of the climate change conference in Bali is to agree on a plan that will lead to a new global climate change deal in Copenhagen in 2009. The deal is to come into force when the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012.

John M. Christensen from Risø participates in the climate change conference. He is head of The UNEP Risoe Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development (URC).

He is going to blog from the conference and answer questions. Follow John Christensen’s blog here.

The UNEP Risoe Centre on Energy, Climate and Sustainable Development (URC) helps the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to incorporate climate and environmental aspects into the energy planning and policy through out the world, focusing especially on the developing countries.

URC is sponsored by UNEP, Danida and Risø DTU.

Read more about the climate change conference here.